MySQL to Counter Oracle's Purchase of InnoDB

Miff writes "Computerworld is reporting that MySQL is hoping to counter Oracle's acquisition of InnoDB by providing its customers with an alternative." From the article: "Axmark said the storage engine is 'pluggable,' meaning other storage engines can be substituted instead. He said the code for InnoDB is under the GPL (General Public License), so 'the code is always out there. It will always be out there.'"

Comments

InnoDB

[damiceious]

So, I'm not an expert on the GPL, but it sounds like we're looking at a fork? Where the OSS community gets to continue to use a public GPL`ed version, and Oracle will develop what they bought? I wouldn't think that Oracle would undermine MySql OS'ness, but the article said without a continuance of their license Mysql Development could slow down, or be setback. Maybe someone can explaint the highlights of the GPL that apply here?

Re:InnoDB

[fbg111]

A few questions come to mind:

1. Does Oracle need InnoDB? Would Oracle gain features or capabilities they don't already have by incorporating it into their database? If so, then perhaps we're looking at a fork.

2. If InnoDB is forked, does MySQL have the developer talent to continue advancing InnoDB, or will the OSS community do it for them, or will it stagnate?

Re:InnoDB

[linuxhansl]

The issue is this:
MySQL makes some of its revenue by selling non-open-source licenses to customers who, for whatever reason, do not widh to publish their contribution.

Now, you can only release code under any license of your choice if you own all the copyrights.

Once Oracle owns the copyrights to InnoDB (and if Oracle does not extend the same relicensing rights to MySQL that InnoDB did), the only option MySQL has is redistributing a derived work under the GPL, they are legally no longer allowed to release under any other license. This in turn cuts off one of their revenue streams.

Silly

[jimmyhat3939]

I think this battle between Oracle and MySql is kind of silly. The two databases serve different purposes:

• MySql is excellent for anything ranging from the casual user (a few tables, 1000 rows in each) up to fairly complex transactional work (a small or medium-sized company).
• Oracle has a bunch of extra features, like an excellent fuzzy text search engine and certain optimizers for complex queries that MySql doesn't (and IMHO shouldn't) have. Oracle is the DB of choice for non-M$ medium-to-large databases.

There are other differences. Setup and configuration of MySql is much simpler, and you don't have to go as crazy creating complex partition schemes on your hard disks to get decent performance. But again, that's as it should be -- for simpler projects you want the free alternative.

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Re:Other storage engines compared

[TheRaven64]

A lot of things where MySQL is used really don't need a database. What they need is something like VMS's structured files - something slightly more abstract than an arbitrary stream of bytes, but not much. In these cases, SQLite might be a better choice than PostgreSQL, although I'd still recommend PostgreSQL to anyone who actually needs a database.